“The term “oligarch” turned out to be very tenacious” – Kommersant FM

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov commented on the current status of Mikhail Fridman, saying that he is not an oligarch, but a major businessman. According to the Kremlin representative, the country’s citizens have the right to move around the world, but they have one homeland. Previously, Friedman and his business partner Peter Aven admitted investing in the UK was a big mistake. As is known, both are under international sanctions. Kommersant FM political commentator Dmitry Drize reminds us that there are officially no oligarchs in Russia.

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov, in response to another request to comment on the “return of the oligarch,” clarified the status of Mikhail Fridman. The main thing is that he is not an oligarch. This is a completely wrong interpretation. And here we will have to digress from the story for a while to remind you which one is correct.

In the modern Russian Federation, oligarchs officially do not exist – we completely defeated this phenomenon at the beginning of the 2000s. However, for some reason, for some unclear reason, the term turned out to be very tenacious. At least 20 years have passed since the historic victory, but things are still there.

Moreover, now almost all wealthy citizens are called oligarchs. For example, if a girl married an oligarch, then life has happened. Or the president publicly scolded the oligarch and forced him to apologize on air – and it served him right. They are like boyars, who are like characters who are not exactly negative, but, let’s say, ambiguous.

Nevertheless, they continue to own factories, newspapers, ships and, naturally, do not need anything. True, some may end up in places not so remote. The law is the same for everyone, right? In addition, it has long been no secret that many “neoligarchs” live in unfriendly countries. And it may seem that they would have lived there happily ever after if not for the sanctions.

Many people found themselves in a difficult situation because of this. However, Mikhail Fridman, as well as his business partner Petr Aven, a former minister of the most democratic, liberal and progressive government of Yegor Gaidar, chose to tell the whole world about their literally suffering through the media. Moreover, it actually turned into a bestseller.

And so they decided to repent: it turns out they made a colossal mistake. For many years they invested – attention – in Great Britain, and she repaid with black ingratitude.

And now we have to move. No, not to Russia – to Israel. But there is a war there now, which is why Friedman is in Moscow.

Meanwhile, we return to Peskov. According to him, Friedman is a major entrepreneur, not an oligarch: “There are smaller businessmen who either leave or return. This is a normal process. Russian citizens travel all over the world, but they have one homeland.”

It is rightly said – neither subtract nor add. But for some reason it happens that those who are now moving around the world, including smaller businessmen, are threatened with Magadan upon their return. And large entrepreneurs are investing in the UK. True, they really regret it later. From the outside it may seem that something here is not entirely correct; clarification is required at a minimum.

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